Quinoa Salad is Berry-licious!

                                                                                 

I really have no excuse for not posting too regularly except for the fact that I have been enjoying some much needed alone time.  How is this you ask? For one, I am on holidays from work until September.  Two, Hubby has been working during the day, as per usual. Three, the Boy is on a fantastic Me to We adventure in Ecuador building a school, playing games with kids, and having a blast. (He's a keeper!)

Not to brag too much, but I have been sleeping in, watching Netflix, and hanging out in the garden.  Nothing too exciting but seems to be just what I needed.  That being said, many apologies if I haven't kept in touch. I must also admit to spending a good amount of time browsing Pinterest.  I love seeing the ideas and thing people come up with and sometimes it inspires my own thought processes.

I found some salads featuring quinoa and berries.  The dressings didn't seem to appeal to me so I figured honey and lime always go well with berries and boom....there you have it. 

Berry Quinoa Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

4 cups mixed berries 

    - I used a mixture of blueberries, cherries, raspberries, and strawberries

1/2 cup un cooked quinoa

1 cup water

Slivered almonds, toast almonds in a dry pan until slightly golden and allow to cool.

Honey lime dressing

1/4 cup lime juice

2 tbsp honey

3 tbsp oil (use a neutral tasting oil such as canola)

Pinch of salt

Combine the quinoa and water in a pot.  Bring to a boil, slap a lid on it, reduce the temperature to low and set the timer for 15 minutes.  When the timer dings, take it off the heat, fluff it with a fork and set it aside to cool.

Wash and dry the berries, cut up the strawberries, pit and halve the cherries, and put it all to the side.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake it until everything is combined. Give the dressing a taste to see if it needs more honey, or lime, or salt.

Once the quinoa is cooled, combine it with the berries, almonds, and the dressing. Chill until serving time.

This salad was divine....Hubby gave it rave reviews!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cupcakes

I am the only girl in my house (unless you count the cats but....).  Sometimes being surrounded by the boys, I feel the need to have nice, pretty, girlie things around.  You know, just because it is nice sometimes to have pretty things.  One really girlie thing I have is my lunch bag.  It is a Disney princess lunch bag and it is pink.  Co workers giggle at it, I know they do because the giggles are often followed by "Nice lunch kit, did you steal it from your kids?"  No, it is mine.  The boys both have New York Mets lunch bags but if they leave that one in a locker or at work, they will not take the pink princess lunch kit! Having pretty things really is just a way of establishing ground rules for what belongs to me.  (Although I am sure that when it really comes down to it, they really don't care either way.  I do however appreciate them letting me think that way.)

My friend Trina made some oh so pretty looking strawberry cupcakes the other day, they really had me drooling.  I started looking (by looking I mean Internet search) for strawberry cupcake recipes.  I found so many that it was overwhelming.  What I decided to do was adapt my vanilla cupcake recipe into a strawberry cupcake recipe.  The strawberry meringue butter cream recipe I saw on Annie's Eats. These girl knows her butter creams! She and Trina both used the one from Martha Stewart.  I changed things up a bit. What I did was this, I used my regular Swiss meringue butter cream and added pureed strawberries at the end.....GLORIOUS (insert angels singing here).

I did make another addition to the cupcake recipe.....Rhubarb!! We were wandering around the produce section and low and behold they had beautiful looking stalks of rhubarb so I made strawberry rhubarb cupcakes with strawberry meringue butter cream.....summer in a cupcake!!

Strawberry Rhubarb Cupcakes
Printable recipe

R2 D2 is always close by...

3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups strawberries and rhubarb (chopped fine)
splash lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar
Small dash of pink food colouring (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Finely chop the rhubarb and the strawberries.  Mix with the splash of lemon juice and 1 tbsp sugar and set aside.

In a bowl mix together 3 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (hand mixer or by hand will work too) cream the 1 cup butter with the 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and thoroughly mixed.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time allowing each one to mix in completely before adding the next one. Mix in the vanilla and the food colouring, if using.

Add the flour mix and the buttermilk, alternating additions starting and ending with the flour.

Mix in the strawberry/rhubarb mixture.

OK, I am going to level with you here.  I added some pink food colouring to the batter with the eggs to make sure I got a pretty pink batter!!

Scoop into lined cupcake pans to 2/3 full and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks to complete cooling.

Strawberry Meringue Butter Cream

5 egg whites
1 cup plus 1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 to 2 cups butter, room temperature
1 cup strawberry puree (strawberries, splash of lemon juice in a blender until smooth)

In a bowl set over (not in) simmering water whisk together sugar and egg whites until the sugar is dissolved and the temperature reaches 160F.   Remove from heat and start the next step. (I pulled mine off the heat before 160 as my 'finger test' was not gritty indicating the sugar had dissolved.)

Finger test- dip in a finger and rub with thumb...if it feels gritty, keep whisking and heating.

With the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until thick and glossy and form stiff peaks. This will take about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add in the room temperature butter 1 tbsp at a time until mixed in.  You may find that you want to stop adding butter when you reach the desired consistency.  I noticed right away when the consistency changed and decided to stop adding butter. I used only 1 1/2 cups of butter today.

Mix in the vanilla and the pureed strawberries until well combined.

Swirl onto pretty cupcakes!!

R2 D2 approves of these pretty cupcakes!

I love these liners!! I found them at Williams Sonoma when we were in St. Louis and have been saving them for a pretty cupcake occasion!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!